How to build a studio for shooting video with minimal cost and for three days
Vasily K., producer of NSMedia studio filmed lectures for our project BeSmart.net. In the meantime, he told us the story that shooting a video is not at all difficult. For this, almost nothing is needed except desire and resourcefulness. A studio for shooting video lectures can be assembled on the knee, a documentary film can be made on an iPhone.
The story happened six years ago when I wanted to get a contract for a series of training videos for employees of one production company. The customer has set a condition: to build a studio and shoot the first video, and if he likes the work - my contract. I fired up.
There was no money at all at that time, and all the equipment of our studio was on other shootings. But the customer was not necessarily aware of this, but I had to get out, and I began to call my friends and acquaintances, trying to borrow money. I called everyone in a row. For those who at the moment could borrow only a thousand rubles, I took a thousand.
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What turned out to be with sound
The customer assigned us a “press room” for our studio - a room in an office with an area of ​​about 40 meters. Conferences were held there, but most of the time the room served as a warehouse for promotional materials. The main complaints about the premises are due to the fact that the sound resonates, and an echo effect occurs, but there was no echo in this room. It was amazing luck.
How we set the light
For the light, I went to the construction market. To fill the room with a filling light, I bought four so-called “troughs” - street lighting for the facades of buildings for half a kilowatt each, and four racks for these devices. As a result, I didn’t even need one of them - two “troughs” were set up for the operators and one for the leader, as in the diagram:
It also shows how we set up a set of four “Dedikov” (Dedolight lighting fixtures), which for the first time I managed to rent from friends. One "Dedik" flashed "Hromakey" ("backdrop", which is placed behind the lead in the frame, so that when installing, instead of the background, you can put any other one), two were placed on the sides, and one was sent directly to the leader.
A funny story came out with “Hromakey”. We bought a mobile folding "hromakey". It is convenient to mount it on the so-called "gate" - these are two special racks with a crossbar between them. But by the time I started shooting, I had bought the “limpy”, but I did not find the “gate”. Let me remind you that it was six years ago, and they simply did not appear in the stores. Therefore, the problem had to be solved non-trivially. Literally on the street, we found two students who agreed to keep the “hromakey” for three hours. They held him intermittently, of course.
What were the cameras
Strictly speaking, it is not necessary to have cameras. Enough to have cameras that can shoot in HD-quality. We bought two of the most simple tripods and installed soapboxes on them - I had a Canon, and I also asked Nikon for a friend. At the exit, the material turned out to be the same, as if we were filming on camera. Only it was necessary to take into account the difference in the transfer of color by different cameras, so that the installation could glue the picture.
Let me remind you that the goal we had was not only to organize the shooting, but to build “Potemkin villages”. It was important for the customer to get something like a real studio, and there was a risk that he would not like cameras. And so it happened, but I convinced him that this was a fashion trend (remember, even the last season of “Doctor House” was filmed with a camera). My arguments worked, the customer agreed.
Project estimate
The only thing we had from expensive professional equipment, in addition to the mentioned Dedolight kit, was a “radio loop”, that is, a wireless microphone, which I rented, as well as a set of lighting devices. The microphone was plugged directly into the laptop and the sound was written on it, although, in an amicable way, you need a portable recorder or write sound directly to the camera. As a result, the project estimate was as follows:
1. Lighting devices and racks for them - 50 thousand rubles.
2. "Chroma Key" - 5,5 thousand rubles
3. Rent of the Dedolight kit - 3.5 thousand rubles.
4. Rent "radio loop" - 1,5 thousand rubles.
5. The fee to two students who held a “hromakey” - 1 thousand rubles.
6. Salary operator - 5 thousand rubles for the shooting day.
7. Two cameras with the ability to shoot HD-video - for free.
8. The room is free.
If it were not for the requirements of the customer, then we would definitely not buy the “trough”, and the main light would also be rented. Then the costs would not exceed 15 thousand rubles. Moreover, now it is easier to find and rent any equipment than during the work on the described project. But it was important for the customer to have a studio in their home, and to create such an effect, the lighting equipment had to be put in the office.
As a result, following the results of the first survey, I received a contract, returned debts and earned, having organized several more surveys for this customer.
Six years later
What would the estimate look like now? Yes, whatever. It all depends on the goals. For example, if you need a home studio, you can open “Yandex.Market” and configure it, easily having put in 100 thousand rubles, while the equipment will not be embarrassing.
Let's take two cheapest cameras (for shooting from two points for the subsequent installation) which will fit for shooting - Nikon d3200 with a lens of 18-55 mm. They will cost 13 thousand rubles each. Tripods Manfrotto - two pieces of 2.5 thousand rubles. “Khromakey” - 5,5 thousand rubles. Zoom H4n recorder - 12 thousand rubles. Radio loop Sennheiser ew100 - 28 thousand rubles. There remains light: you can go to the construction market, as we did in our time, or you can buy Chinese devices for shooting - there are a lot of them now.
Construction markets are an ideal place to search for equipment when professional devices are not at hand. Once, when I didn’t have the “fishing rods” to bring the microphone to the people in the frame, then a two-meter-high aluminum tube came to that, to which the microphone was tied with scotch tape. It looked not very nice, but there were no functional differences.
On another occasion, we struggled with the echo in the room with the help of four large pieces of hardboard, which, again, were bought at the construction market in Pomoskovye, next to the pavilion where the shooting took place. Three sheets were placed on three sides of the leader, and a canopy was made from the fourth sheet. There, on the market, you can buy "sound insulation" (building material for sound insulation) and paste over the walls and acoustic foam rubber for the ceiling.
If there is no money at all
An analogue of any professional equipment can be assembled on the knee from what is at hand. When we shot a video review of routers for the website Overclokers.ru, we did not have a special table for subject shooting, on which gadgets are being filmed. Then we put the router on white A4 sheets and sent the light of two table lamps to it. In a nearby supermarket, we bought light bulbs for them that give cold light. And so that this light was not bright, we closed the lamps with A4 sheets, imitating the diverters.
I did another experiment with “handmade” on holiday in Kerch. There, my colleagues and I decided to shoot a short film on the “soap box” and “iPhone”, and one of the characters had creepy bags under their eyes (professionals call this the “panda effect”). In the studio, the bags are cleaned with the help of correctly set light and makeup. And at the exit use "phlox" - a special reflector. We made it ourselves from a sheet of paperman stuck with scotch tape on a frame of sticks, and it worked no worse than the present.
Why am I talking about this? In addition, the main thing is not equipment, and you can do without it at all - make a video on the iPhone, and mount it on an iPad. The main thing in this process is the confidence with which the characters stay in front of the camera, knowledge of the basics of staged shooting (here you can use the short Hollywood Camera Work video course) and the brains of the person who shoots. In contrast to the equipment, which is quite simple to deal with, brains cannot be bought.
The story happened six years ago when I wanted to get a contract for a series of training videos for employees of one production company. The customer has set a condition: to build a studio and shoot the first video, and if he likes the work - my contract. I fired up.
There was no money at all at that time, and all the equipment of our studio was on other shootings. But the customer was not necessarily aware of this, but I had to get out, and I began to call my friends and acquaintances, trying to borrow money. I called everyone in a row. For those who at the moment could borrow only a thousand rubles, I took a thousand.
')
What turned out to be with sound
The customer assigned us a “press room” for our studio - a room in an office with an area of ​​about 40 meters. Conferences were held there, but most of the time the room served as a warehouse for promotional materials. The main complaints about the premises are due to the fact that the sound resonates, and an echo effect occurs, but there was no echo in this room. It was amazing luck.
How we set the light
For the light, I went to the construction market. To fill the room with a filling light, I bought four so-called “troughs” - street lighting for the facades of buildings for half a kilowatt each, and four racks for these devices. As a result, I didn’t even need one of them - two “troughs” were set up for the operators and one for the leader, as in the diagram:
It also shows how we set up a set of four “Dedikov” (Dedolight lighting fixtures), which for the first time I managed to rent from friends. One "Dedik" flashed "Hromakey" ("backdrop", which is placed behind the lead in the frame, so that when installing, instead of the background, you can put any other one), two were placed on the sides, and one was sent directly to the leader.
A funny story came out with “Hromakey”. We bought a mobile folding "hromakey". It is convenient to mount it on the so-called "gate" - these are two special racks with a crossbar between them. But by the time I started shooting, I had bought the “limpy”, but I did not find the “gate”. Let me remind you that it was six years ago, and they simply did not appear in the stores. Therefore, the problem had to be solved non-trivially. Literally on the street, we found two students who agreed to keep the “hromakey” for three hours. They held him intermittently, of course.
What were the cameras
Strictly speaking, it is not necessary to have cameras. Enough to have cameras that can shoot in HD-quality. We bought two of the most simple tripods and installed soapboxes on them - I had a Canon, and I also asked Nikon for a friend. At the exit, the material turned out to be the same, as if we were filming on camera. Only it was necessary to take into account the difference in the transfer of color by different cameras, so that the installation could glue the picture.
Let me remind you that the goal we had was not only to organize the shooting, but to build “Potemkin villages”. It was important for the customer to get something like a real studio, and there was a risk that he would not like cameras. And so it happened, but I convinced him that this was a fashion trend (remember, even the last season of “Doctor House” was filmed with a camera). My arguments worked, the customer agreed.
Project estimate
The only thing we had from expensive professional equipment, in addition to the mentioned Dedolight kit, was a “radio loop”, that is, a wireless microphone, which I rented, as well as a set of lighting devices. The microphone was plugged directly into the laptop and the sound was written on it, although, in an amicable way, you need a portable recorder or write sound directly to the camera. As a result, the project estimate was as follows:
1. Lighting devices and racks for them - 50 thousand rubles.
2. "Chroma Key" - 5,5 thousand rubles
3. Rent of the Dedolight kit - 3.5 thousand rubles.
4. Rent "radio loop" - 1,5 thousand rubles.
5. The fee to two students who held a “hromakey” - 1 thousand rubles.
6. Salary operator - 5 thousand rubles for the shooting day.
7. Two cameras with the ability to shoot HD-video - for free.
8. The room is free.
If it were not for the requirements of the customer, then we would definitely not buy the “trough”, and the main light would also be rented. Then the costs would not exceed 15 thousand rubles. Moreover, now it is easier to find and rent any equipment than during the work on the described project. But it was important for the customer to have a studio in their home, and to create such an effect, the lighting equipment had to be put in the office.
As a result, following the results of the first survey, I received a contract, returned debts and earned, having organized several more surveys for this customer.
Six years later
What would the estimate look like now? Yes, whatever. It all depends on the goals. For example, if you need a home studio, you can open “Yandex.Market” and configure it, easily having put in 100 thousand rubles, while the equipment will not be embarrassing.
Let's take two cheapest cameras (for shooting from two points for the subsequent installation) which will fit for shooting - Nikon d3200 with a lens of 18-55 mm. They will cost 13 thousand rubles each. Tripods Manfrotto - two pieces of 2.5 thousand rubles. “Khromakey” - 5,5 thousand rubles. Zoom H4n recorder - 12 thousand rubles. Radio loop Sennheiser ew100 - 28 thousand rubles. There remains light: you can go to the construction market, as we did in our time, or you can buy Chinese devices for shooting - there are a lot of them now.
Construction markets are an ideal place to search for equipment when professional devices are not at hand. Once, when I didn’t have the “fishing rods” to bring the microphone to the people in the frame, then a two-meter-high aluminum tube came to that, to which the microphone was tied with scotch tape. It looked not very nice, but there were no functional differences.
On another occasion, we struggled with the echo in the room with the help of four large pieces of hardboard, which, again, were bought at the construction market in Pomoskovye, next to the pavilion where the shooting took place. Three sheets were placed on three sides of the leader, and a canopy was made from the fourth sheet. There, on the market, you can buy "sound insulation" (building material for sound insulation) and paste over the walls and acoustic foam rubber for the ceiling.
If there is no money at all
An analogue of any professional equipment can be assembled on the knee from what is at hand. When we shot a video review of routers for the website Overclokers.ru, we did not have a special table for subject shooting, on which gadgets are being filmed. Then we put the router on white A4 sheets and sent the light of two table lamps to it. In a nearby supermarket, we bought light bulbs for them that give cold light. And so that this light was not bright, we closed the lamps with A4 sheets, imitating the diverters.
I did another experiment with “handmade” on holiday in Kerch. There, my colleagues and I decided to shoot a short film on the “soap box” and “iPhone”, and one of the characters had creepy bags under their eyes (professionals call this the “panda effect”). In the studio, the bags are cleaned with the help of correctly set light and makeup. And at the exit use "phlox" - a special reflector. We made it ourselves from a sheet of paperman stuck with scotch tape on a frame of sticks, and it worked no worse than the present.
Why am I talking about this? In addition, the main thing is not equipment, and you can do without it at all - make a video on the iPhone, and mount it on an iPad. The main thing in this process is the confidence with which the characters stay in front of the camera, knowledge of the basics of staged shooting (here you can use the short Hollywood Camera Work video course) and the brains of the person who shoots. In contrast to the equipment, which is quite simple to deal with, brains cannot be bought.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/244291/
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